Pitched as necessary to ensure métro users’ sense of safety, Montreal’s transit agency said Tuesday that it would maintain a ban on loitering in stations.
The “move along” order, which allows police to remove people loitering in métro stations, was introduced last winter in response to unhoused Montrealers sheltering in the transit network.
The policy was briefly suspended in May 2025, before the Société de transport de Montréal revived it weeks later. This latest announcement extends the order until the end of April 2027.
Critics have argued the order has left unhoused people with fines they can’t pay, and exposed them to the elements when they have nowhere else to go.
“The move-along order is intended to provide special constables with an additional tool to maintain social balance within stations,” the STM said in its statement Tuesday, reporting that police had applied the measure almost 2,500 times per month over the winter.
“The STM believes this measure helps stabilize the situation and limit undesirable behaviour in the métro.”
The transit agency said the measure resulted in a 22 per cent decrease in service interruptions of five minutes or more caused by “intentional disruptive behaviour.” Thirty-six per cent fewer people are being escorted out of stations at closing time, the STM said.
“To continue attracting more ridership to the métro, we must continue to enhance customers’ sense of safety within the network, and we are taking action to that end,” STM chairperson Aref Salem said in the statement.
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